Wordpad and the Forum reply toolbar

[johnfowles]

I reported in the Faves thread how I lost everything when my mouse and computer froze yesterday.
I had to redraft the epistle using Wordpad and recalled a feature of the new forum setup that I wanted to investigate
at the top of a blank wordpad composition screen is a convenient toolbar

i couldn't help noticing recently that whereas initially one had to use vbb tags to colour or format the text now there is a wordpad like toolbar

which just like Wordpad allows you to readily change not only
the font colour and size and make it bold or italic but also select from a limited range of fonts as shown in a drop down listing

forum limited font range
As I had previously found when pasting in previously drafted replies
that whatever I drafted in Wordpad was faithfully deposited when copied from the Wordpad draft into a forum reply
and as Wordpad has a larger selection of fonts comprising those
that happen to be on your computer
I wondered what would happen if I had used another font in my draft
here is an example using one of my favourite modern fonts

I tried it in a dummy reply but the forum changed the font to a standard verdana

This is because the font menus differ

Wordpad's extended font menu
why should this be??
you might be asking.
Those like Val here who are familiar with web page design will be well aware that because the internet has to cater for viewers
using a wide variety of platforms of varying vintage then not all will be able to see every font that a web designer would like to utilise. the simple solution adopted by w3c when the HTML standards were drawn up is to limit allowable fonts to a small classification of 5 generic font families
and for somewhat dfferent reasons there is a restricted number of recommended colo(u)rs that may be specified and there is a basic list comprising a just 16 "safe" colors that should be rendered correctly by any platform

Anyway the point is that if you use Wordpad to compose a reply just bear in mind these colour and font restrictions
And why use Wordpad ??
I personally find it easier to standardise on one text editor and Wordpad is my choice over the bulky/slow loading Word and the too-simple Notepad
indeed I have made little shortcuts on my taskbar to make opening Wordpad easier rather than go Start>Programs>Accessories>select Wordpad.

In addition I try to save all Wordpad created files in Rich Text Format *.rtf
and have changed the default file association of rtf files from Word to Wordpad
Ok How does one do that??
in a "my computer" view click Tools then Folder Options then File types
then scroll down to rtf and click on it.
yours will probably say that rtf files will be opened using the default program (Word)

Mine is already changed to Wordpad
Press err umm "change"
select Wordpad

So there you have it a piece of cake!!
or has everybody nodded off again
As the late UK comedian Jimmy Edwards used to bellow
"Wake up at the back there!!"